zebra danio breeding

[Arrynyo2008]

i just got 4 zebra danios and i want them to breed. but since they are so small i cant tell the males from females. ive read that they differ in color and two are kinda silverish and the other two are more gold but beyond that, is there some website i can go to and get extensive info on sexing danios and breeding tips? and info is very helpful thanks guys

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

You already identified the differences in the sexes. :) Simply isolate one pair, and begin feeding them live foods such as newly hatched brine shrimp for a few days, along with frozen blood worms. Usually doesn't take long after that. Zebra Danios are extremely easy to breed. Getting them to spawn is the easy part, raising the fry is more work. You will need to be prepared to feed them infusoria, and even hard boiled egg yolk squeezed through a "sock". After about a week, the will be ready to take newly hatched brine shrimp and even powdered flakes. You just have to keep giving them a good diet and increasing the size of their food until they are large enough to eat the same thing as the parents. Also, it is helpful to remove the parents from the breeding tank so that they do not eat the eggs.

[dbosman]

Zebra Danios are a breeze to spawn and rear.
Feed high quality foods and they will spawn. It really is that simple.

To keep the eggs from being eaten you will need marbles or large gravel on the tank bottom, or lots of plants such as java moss. There are plastic spawning mats that can keep the parents away from the eggs as well.
They will spawn after the lights come on in the morning so you'll want to take the parents out of the tank a couple of hours later. I work during the week so I only pull parents from the spawning tank on weekends. I end up with lots to give away. My zebra spawning/hatching/early rearing tank is 2.5 gallons with a sponge filter. Eggs are large enough for people with good eyesight to see. Zebra Danio eggs are used in classroom biology experiments as kids can spawn them, see the eggs, and watch the embryo develop.

Eggs will start to hatch in three days, but will continue to hatch over time depending on temperature.

Fry are very small. You'll notice them as they jerk around as they move. They look like little slivers of glass.
Infusoria is the ideal first food as they are too small to eat baby brine shrimp. I use Hikari First Bites, Golden Pearls, and Ken's Fish #00 Growth meal. The small Cyclops Eeze is great too.

[SunSchein89]

I've had some long-finned zebra danios in my 10 gallon for a good while now. Been feeding NLS pellets along with either frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp maybe 2 or 3 times a week.

Food seems to be of a good quality, do you think my eggs are just getting eaten? I haven't seen any fry since I've had them and I'm pretty positive I have males and females in the tank (there's 5 of them total).

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

SunSchein, the key I've always found to spawning them is to only use live or frozen foods. I've never had any success spawning them with any prepared foods in their diet.

[Arrynyo2008]

all good info thanks guys. i have a 2gal i can put a pair in and my lfs have brine shrimp eggs and a friend of mine showed me how to make Infusoria. i might post some pics up when i get some eggs but thanks again!

[SunSchein89]

Hmm alright, have to start looking around for some live foods then I suppose. Be good for all the fish, anyway.

[Aeonflame]

Have you set up a breeding tank yet? A 5 gallon works great. You need to put a layer of marbles on the bottom. Most female danios are full of eggs though they may not look it, so you should add a couple females and a bit more males to the breeding tank. Danios spawn the morning after a water change so you can replicate this by filling the tank with fresh clean water.. no need to cycle or filter. Do this around mid day for the latest so they will get comfortable.

In the morning, they will start mating, which can get a bit violent. the males will start pushing the females around (poor things) by about mid day, you should see the mating stop and you can return them to their tank. You should carefully pick the marbles out and yes, its a bit tedious. You should see a bunch of clear little eggs. Add a few drops of methylene blue or fish egg guard and put in a gently bubbling airstone. You will see some eggs turn whitish. These are unfertilized and should be removed. You can use a pipette for this. This is to prevent them from growing fungus that will spread to the other eggs. Methylene blue helps a lot in this area.

In 2 to 3 days the eggs will hatch and you'll see tiny black specks all over the sides of the tank. they look like insect larvae. You can siphon the treated water through an airstone and add clean water. Do water changes over the next few days till all the Meth blue is gone. In a day or two the fry will become free swimming. By this time they would have used up their yolk sacs and will be looking for food. This brings us to the most important part.

Infusoria... you need it, and you need to start cultures preferably before you start breeding. The fry are too tiny to feed on much else. You can look online for various infusoria recipes. I use a culture of green water that has been sitting outside for a while. Then i put in crushed and blanched lettuce and a couple drops of milk. pour this into a glass jar and place it by a well lit window. In a few days it will assume a cloudy white colour. If it smells, then its no good and you should start a new one. Once you have a good culture, you can use water from that to infuse other separate cultures. You'll need them for your fry.
A mistake I made was keeping them in too much water. they are remarkably hardy little things and you can keep them in lower water levels. this will make it easier for them to find food. Pour in part of your culture and then top off the jar with tank water and start again. Remember to change the water in the tank if it gets too smelly. You can use a solution of powdered egg yolk to feed your fry also, but use this sparingly and step up your water changes.

After a couple weeks your fry will be old enough to feed brine shrimp. Just brew up batches every day and stuff them full. At this point you are set, the hardest part was the infusoria stage.



I tried an experiment where i put a bowl with infusoria and lettuce leaves aside and put about 6 of my fry in there. Not only did they survive that horrible water, but in two weeks time, they were 4 times bigger than the others.

I hope this helps :)